Bobcats 108, Knicks 98: I’m soooooooo tired, I haven’t slept a wink…

Andrea Bargnani, PF22 MIN | 3-4 FG | 1-2 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 0 TO | 8 PTS | -21Bargnani had to guard Josh McRoberts tonight, who is essentially a better, more Charlie Day-ish version of himself. (There are zero vermin in the basement of the Bobcats’ training center.) Bargs took just four shots tonight, typical spot-ups for him, except for one two-handed slam that was fun because it was a two-handed slam that Bargs did when he slammed it. Dunk. Moving on.

Carmelo Anthony, SF38 MIN | 9-22 FG | 2-2 FT | 6 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 20 PTS | -20It was a two-sided showing for Melo on the offensive end tonight, with the division coming between his jacking up threes and scoring in the mid-range area according to the MSG broadcast team. However, it was really the defender Anthony faced that shifted how his night went. With the young stud Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on him, Carmelo struggled big time with his offense – settling for long-range contested shots and connecting on very little overall. With MKG’s backup in – Anthony Tolliver – Melo’s looks fell with ease. (Side note: In 4 games prior to tonight’s match-up, Melo is shooting 41% from the field against Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.) Anthony was energized on the defensive end early, but it gave away quickly enough due to fatigue.

Tyson Chandler, C16 MIN | 2-2 FG | 1-1 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 5 PTS | -7Made his return tonight from one nasty tummy bug/Ebola strain (Yes I made the same joke for two recaps of mine in a row, and yes I’m boosting my word count with this unnecessary insertion. My recap, my rules.) (EDITOR’S NOTE: Verts gonna Verts) and turned in a predictably underwhelming performance. Chandler was rusty and played limited minutes, looking very 2013 neck injury Tyson tonight. Al Jefferson had a field day on him, but in Chandler’s defense Al crushed all who opposed him on this night. Give him another one-two games to recoup.

Raymond Felton, PG29 MIN | 5-12 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 13 PTS | -21Felton was pretty decent for the first 20 minutes of basketball, connecting on his jumpers and not allowing Kemba Walker very easy looks – forcing the New York native to hurt the Knicks from behind the arc. Then things… changed. Felton got lazy and switched a lot letting Kemba explode for 25 points, and Ray’s good start offensively regressed to the shallow mean that it is. On the bright side – he looks healthy!

Iman Shumpert, SG33 MIN | 2-5 FG | 0-1 FT | 3 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 5 PTS | +5Shumpert had a very silent game, taking few shots and lacking his usual spark on the defensive end. Again, fatigue was probably an issue here – as it was for the entire team tonight. Gerald Henderson lit Shump up for 17 points on 13 shots, but the worst part about Iman’s game tonight was his lack of ferocity on the boards. Shump’s three rebounds was a low he hasn’t hit since late December.

Kenyon Martin, PF28 MIN | 3-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 6 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | -7Martin too suffered from the effects of the back-to-back beginning with an overtime contest, looking grounded all night. Like Chandler, he wasn’t able to answer the Al Jefferson question. The question, of course, is “How do you defend Al Jefferson?” The answer is “D) None of the above.” He did have a nice mid-range jumper and oop pass to Melo–the latter of which is becoming a mainstay of his game. Love that.

Amar’e Stoudemire, PF22 MIN | 6-10 FG | 5-5 FT | 4 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 17 PTS | +4RETURN OF THE STAT. I mean, wow. Has this guy been phenomenal lately or what? Bask in the glory that is post-prime, vintage phenomenal Amar’e Stoudemire and his phenomenal-ness. I’m not sure what’s caused this phenomenal revival, but STAT’s jumper returned tonight with two good-looking, phenomenal mid-range makes, and he once again converted phenomenally in the post (did I really just say that? Phenomenal.) and he unleashed a monster, phenomenal slam at the end of the third. He also did this.

Not so phenomenal.

Beno Udrih, PG13 MIN | 2-3 FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 5 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 6 PTS | +3Beno stepped in to replace the offensively-challenged Murry and unleashed some solid point guard stuff–P&R close-range pull-ups, sweet dishes–sparking a Knicks run late in the game. Of course, he also allowed Kemba Walker to whatever shot he wanted, where he wanted, how he wanted them, in what flavor, with however many toppings he wanted on them, the shots. Which he hit.

Toure’ Murry, SG8 MIN | 0-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +13Murry had a decent 1st half, but saw fewer minutes than Beno Udrih because of his inability to run the offense. It was for the better, as the Knicks kicked off a run when Udrih stepped in, but Murry would have been useful during Kemba Walker’s rampage late in the ball game.

Tim Hardaway Jr., SG27 MIN | 4-10 FG | 2-3 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 12 PTS | -6This game–played in front of Tim Hardaway Sr.–started out as what looked like to be THJ’s best professional basketball outing with 4 straight makes (with two from downtown) and a nifty dime to Tyson Chandler for the alley-oop slam. Then all of his shots started finding iron, and as usual he couldn’t defend at an NBA level whatsoever. Tim hasn’t been able to get out in transition much lately, and tonight was no different. It could be due to the team’s slower pace, or Chandler being out, but it needs to change because Hardaway Jr. is quite possibly the Knicks’ best open-court player.

Mike Woodson
Woody was a mixed bag tonight, not making any timely substitutions to give the Knicks a real shot at the win outside of Beno’s entrance, not giving Tyler any burn when the frontline had no legs and running Carmelo into the ground by having him play 38 minutes after playing 45 just the night before. Some nice things though, like not playing the Carmelo-Bargnani-Stoudemire lineup big mins, bringing Murry off the bench first despite Udrih being healthy and limiting Tyson’s minutes. But the big coaching note of the night – J.R. Smith not playing at all. More on this later.

Three Things We Saw

Okay, we’ve waited long enough. Let’s talk about J.R. Smith. Coming off of two games where Smith played decently enough to warrant a continuing role following his benching against the Miami Heat, Smith was benched again on a night where the team DESPERATELY needed some fresh legs. At halftime Herb Williams said Tim Hardaway Jr. took Smith’s minutes on this night because he was on fire early. Mike Woodson declined to comment. Smith packed some luggage – beat writers tweeted about it, because they are Knicks beat writers covering the Knicks – which is peculiar? Why would it be? I don’t know. Smith can be traded starting tomorrow, which has made many in the Twitterverse believe a deal is impending, but I doubt any team out there wants J.R. Smith. There may be a single team interested, maybe, but in such a case why even bring Smith into the stadium? Why have him active? Who knows what comes next, but it’ll probably be heartbreaking/hilarious/stupid as hell, if past/recent history is any indicator.

Some statistical nonsense: The Knicks played a Murry-THJ-Shump-Melo-Chandler lineup tonight. Big smile. For one minute per NBA.com/stats with a NetRTG of +63.9. That obviously means nothing, but nonetheless I’d like to see it s’more, please Also, some recent trends didn’t keep up tonight. From New Year’s up until the Phoenix overtime win, Stoudemire has shot 3-11 from mid-range. Against the Bobcats, Stoudemire was 2-5! Improvement!

Oh, the game, right. I wouldn’t look to deep into this one; the Knicks were dead. The body language screamed, “I’m tired as hell, I want to go home.” Which can happen after five straight wins and on the second of a back-to-back where the first went into OT, right before they had to hop on a plane. So, let’s see how this team does in a tough one on the road against the Indiana Pacers. If you aren’t aware, theyare very good at basketball. I’ll hope for a competitive game, and also that Shumpert doesn’t foul any more shooters. REMEMBER THAT?! Go Knicks!

Last night’s C+ for Bargs was too cruel, but tonight’s B is way too kind. Bargnani was a complete non-entity. One dunk and one 3 was the totality of his contribution. No energy and he bailed out on rebounding.

Roulette wheel keeps spinning. More nights like tonight will lead to DNP-CD.

Melo had a bad night on a back to back against a good young defender. He still outrebounded the rest of the starting froncourt by himself. (Bargs, I’m looking at you) Incedentaly, a B for Bargnani is Harvard level grade inflation.

Five wins in a row bought Woodson some time, Melo still playing so many minutes? Woody’s plays still doesn’t make sense to me, and whatever happened to taking it to the glass. Stop settling for jump shots. As for JR, maybe the DNP is the motivation tool by Woody, but this loss is on him. He should play the rookies at least 10 minutes per game as relief for Melo et al and use it as a learning experience for them as well

This is a Woodson lose no doubt about it, I get kinda why he wants to keep consistent with some of the rotations in the grand scheme of things but our record dictates putting in fresh legs and going for the victory tonight. If that meant playing Tyler / Murray / Cole / Hardaway / Smith for 20 minutes instead of watching exhausted melo airball and Felton switching, so be it…beno did okay but he really is as bad as Felton on defense. The coach needs to actually coach some of these players while the games are happening I don’t think he wants to teach Murray to stop gambling or Shump to fix his fast break or get Melo rest at any point..jr is benched from Dolan I would have to guess Woodson has been told to give him the silent treatment also sounds like something Dolan would request

I have to agree, the decision to bench JR for this game has Dolan’s fingerprints all over it . Why tonight after he actually looked like an NBA player the last 2 games?! Woody still has his Mancrush on Earl so clearly this wasn’t his dea, verified by his no comment after the game. This season has had more drama than a daytime soap opera. Stay tuned…..

By the way, I still can’t believe Hornaceck didn’t remind Frye to intentionally miss the second free throw last night. How in the world do you take the biggest moment of the game for granted like that?

He did yell for Channing to miss that second free throw he said it like five times loud enough for me to hear it but he also looked like he didnt care also at the same time just kinda tapered off at the end there, new reports are jr smith complained or argued with Woodson last night on the bench

He did yell for Channing to miss that second free throw he said it like five times loud enough for me to hear it but he also looked like he didnt care also at the same time just kinda tapered off at the end there, new reports are jr smith complained or argued with Woodson last night on the bench

I mean before he went to the line. Shouldn’t that be something that they have a specific plan for?

new reports are jr smith complained or argued with Woodson last night on the bench

Apparently the team sent JR home on the road, hence the packing of luggage. And Chandler is quoted as saying “JR Smith WAS a good teammate,” was being the key word there. Speculation on Twitter is that he will be traded for Andre Miller today.

Wow, Denver is one of the very few teams in the NBA who likely could use JR, so I can believe that. Does Udrih get cut if this happens? I find it hard to believe that they’d let Murry go at this point.

It’ll be fascinating to be able to watch Miller on a regular basis if this deal happens. He’s one of the most interesting players in the entire league. He looks like he could barely play in a rec league and yet he continues to impress even though he’s 117 years old.

They should look to make a deal with Sacramento. JR fits their whole “trade for inefficient volume scorers on bad contracts” movement which started with the Rudy Gay deal. Something like Smith/Felton for Fredette/Thornton. Contracts work and Knicks get younger while also unloading two of their lower PER players.

That’d be an interesting trade. I think Fredette could be a decent player on a good team. But Thornton is just as bad (and as overpaid) as Smith and Fredette might be an improvement over Felton, but he might not.

Yes Thornton is equal to JR in just about every facet of bad basketball. But his deal is shorter than JR’s, and it would be extremely difficult for him to become as much of a headache as JR is right now. And maybe a consistent role/change of scenery could spark his game….but yeah there is no “good trade” for the Knicks right now involving JR, maybe they are just going to waive him and cut their losses….nothing against Andre Miller but the Knicks don’t need another AARP point guard .

I’m still holding out hope that Lowry has told Raptors he will not re-sign and Knicks are the only team where he will indicate an intention to re-sign. Maybe JR/Murry/3m/protected 1-15 pick might happen. Lowry last time I checked had the 3rd highest WS/48 behind Paul and Curry.

Some Lineup Statistics (NBAwowy.com)
(1) Minus 13.8 per 100 possessions in 189 minutes when AB and TC together
(2) Plus 2.2/100 in 169 minutes when TC is on the floor without AB
(3) Minus 0.6/100 in 931 minutes when AB is on the floor without TC
(4) Minus 5.0/100 in 256 minutes when KMart is on the floor without TC and AB
(5) Only 4 minutes of data (terrible) when KMart and TC play together
(6) Plus 13.3/100 in 319 minutes AB and KMart together
(7) Plus 17.7/100 in 207 minutes when Bargs/Melo/Shump/Smith plus a PG are on the floor
(8) Plus 13 in 31 minutes, our best TC lineup Felton-Prigioni-Shumpert-Anthony-Chandler
(9) Sample size not large enough for Amare when you consider his terrible start

Conclusions
> Never play Bargs and Chandler together. Why? Because the East minus 13.8 stat is big, man.
> Bargs should only be played in 2 types of lineups as indicated by (6) and (7) above.
> We should not completely abandon the 2 PG lineup when Chandler is center.

Note: In last night’s game, our worst lineup was -14 in 6 minutes and included Chandler and Bargs. Woodson is one of the the last of a dying breed of coaches who pay almost no attention to statistics and coach from cliches and gut instincts. They are being replaced by coaches like Vogel and Hornacek by an expanding corps of more analytical GMs like McDonough and Hollinger.

Man, I would love Andre Miller on the Knicks. Would have loved it more ten years ago, but if we can add him and his veteran wiles and his shorter contract and unload JR Smith’s soap opera antics and wild inconsistency, I’d say that’s a win, assuming (read: hoping like hell) we wouldn’t have to give up another asset. Sure, we’re selling low, but can you really put a price on not having to deal with JR? Besides, Miller and Melo have some history so hopefully there’s still some chemistry there. I dunno. I’m just so sick of JR.

I was thinking about the Miller trade for JR (I think someone proposed it here), for a couple days, and the more I think on it the more I like it.
First, Miller’s contract sunsets around the same time every there Knicks’ contract sunsets. That’s good, particularly because he’s old.
Second, by giving up JR and getting Miller you lose immaturity and unpredictability and gain veteran experience and predictability. On a team bereft of maturity and intelligence, getting Miller would be a huge bonus.
You also get a more reliable shooter: Miller shoots 45% from the field and 50% from 3pt this year.

And JR likely would benefit from a change of scenery. Having JR in NY is a dangerous mix.

Of course, the average age of our back court would be just this side of ancient by NBA standards, which is troubling given Felton, Prigs, Udrih and he would have difficulty keeping each other in front of them, never mind Kemba or Connolly or Wall or, well, any young point in the NBA.
Frankly, I don’t know why the Knicks don’t just always have Shump guard the opposing Point and let our slow points guard the 2.

The Knicks can still send cash as part of a trade correct? I could see the Nuggets being ok with pulling the trigger on this deal if the Knicks were willing to throw in the full $3 million allowed into the trade. They’d virtually not have to pay JR this season under those circumstances. In fact if the Knicks can and are offering to give up the full amount of cash considerations they are allowed to part with then I could see a couple of teams potentially biting.

How many points will JR Smith score in his first game against the Knicks??? It will be so cool to watch Shump guarding him… BTW I just want all this JR Smith circus to be over. I was a fan of his 1st signing but after all the drama from last year’s playoffs, I didn’t want him on the team this season.

Yeah, I have no love left for JR, but trading him for Miller at this point doesn’t make much sense to me. In a world where we’re preparing to trade Melo and Tyson and start tanking, then yeah dumping JR to help the long term cap picture and remove the potentially toxic personalities makes perfect sense. But I think we all know that’s not where this thing is going. And for a team that still has pretensions of contending, that move doesn’t make much sense.

Andre Miller just doesn’t bring much to the table that isn’t already on hand here in my opinion. We’re already overloaded with poor to average point guard play, and it’s not even like Miller really brings a new flavor of mediocrity to the table – what we could really use is a more dynamic pg who can bring some athleticism to the position (it’s notable that Toure’ has seemed like such a breath of fresh air even though he’s basically the cheapest in class for that PG model) and Miller is obviously not that. We’ve already got backup PGs out the wazoo and as Nick C. pointed out, a coach loathe to play more than a single PG at a time. Trading a wing for another backup PG doesn’t compute in that respect.

Plus if we’re going to try to compete this year we need to hold on to every bit of upside potential we have, and as awful as JR has been this year, he still has the potential to be this team’s 3rd best player for a significant stretch of time in my opinion. That’s not true of Miller.

This is the exact time NOT to trade JR, especially for a grumpy old man (Miller).
After the benching, JR played his best game of the season, followed by another solid, though pedestrian, game. People turn their lives around. He was sent a strong message by the league and the team. Maybe he gets it.
Put him on a short leash. If he goes back to his antics, THEN trade him. But, why in the world would you trade a talented guy that’s presently shown a glimmer of hope?